In the Summer of 2002, I visited the Greek Island of Chios where my both parents come from. I did there my Master Thesis Research on Chios in the Age of Alexander the Great, part of which was an emphasis on the role of the Macedonian Army and the nomographers that Alexander the Great sent to the island in the period 331-325 BC in order to liberate the island from the Persians, bring back the exiled democratic party Chians and send in exile the philo-Persian Chian traitors. Alexander was acting as the General of the Hellenic Council of Corinth. I was the first to take an archaeological perspective to this aspect of Alexander's military policy. I was sure that the scattered Macedonian place names of Chios (Makedonia, Attaleia, Kalimasia, etc.) were not an accident. Callimachus and Attalus were Alexander's generals. There was also an inscription of Attalus found in Frangomachalas, Chios Town.
In order to take permision for using flash for a picture, I had to call Ms Aglaia Archontidou, who was then the Director of the 20th Ephorate of Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities that was located on the nearby island of Lesbos. Ms Archontidou required me to get there in order to get permision just for taking a picture of an inscription by using flash, because, she said, flash causes elecrochemical reactions on marbles and destroy them. She asked me over the phone what was the purpose of my research. She seemed to be very interested in my research and so were many archaeologists I had to speak to in order to get access to various sites and museums on Chios, though I avoided telling them details. I told her about it, but not much, because it was quite a unique project and I was already familiar with the sinister politics of public archaeologists in Greece. I politely refused to come to Mytiline, Lesbos saying that I would rather find the picture of that inscription from books or articles and so did I. Back to America, I submitted my thesis, I was praised for the unique outcomes of my research, and soon I was a guest in a few Greek-American radio talk shows in New York City, without revealing crucial information that could endager unexcavated or in situ antiquities. I spoke mostly from a historical perspective.
However, three years later, I heard on Kostas Chardavellas' "Atheatos Cosmos" ("Invisible World" investigative journalism TV show on ANT1, a Greek channel) that a series of Macedonian graves were found on Chios Island and were looted by...public archaeologists and the Director of the 20th Ephorate of Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities Aglaia Archontidou herself!!! She took a bribe from a man who owned a taxi company and who had a lot of money and connections on the island in order to help him build a XXX-movie theater on the top of the Macedonian graves!!! His last name was Mamounas, which in Greek it means "pest" and I don't think that's an accident... He had bought that tract of land and the construction workers started digging up for laying the foundations of his new building complex, when they accidently found the graves!!! Archontidou ordered a huge fence to be constructed and have construction workers remove all the graves, break them down into pieces, use the marble as construction matterial for modern construction and dump all the human remains a few miles away in a dumpyard!!! Luckily, luck was not on their side... An elementary teacher and real patriot was standing on his tall balcony in a nearby building. He noticed that weird activities were taking place in this ancient cemetery and he grabed his camera taking numerous pictures. He could not believe his eyes when he saw construction workers and..."archaeologists" smashing marble sarcophagi into pieces with axes, graiders, and bulldozers! So he called the police and reported to the District Attorney. Archontidou was suspended from her position, but no one really knows if she actually end up in jail, which I doubt it, though she should. However, as many public archaeologists do in Greece, she had already published a few articles, before she destroys the graves and sell the artifacts to foreign smugglers, probably British, the artifacts that she valued as "more important", as she made money out of them! That's what many archaeologists do on Chios and elsewhere. On Chios, many of them have connections with British smugglers! Chios is not the only island where those things happen, though. Most public archaeological agencies (ephorates) all over Greece are corrupted . Ηοςεωερ, ιt's not only the archaeological agencies that are corrupted.
Most government agencies are corrupted in Greece. Most government employees get hired based on connections and political affiliations and they get easily bribed. The more important the archaeological site the more corrupted the government agencies that are supposed to protect the culture of those places and promote tourism, the only "heavy industry" of Greece... Archontidou and her colleagues were having a close collaboration with and support from other local government agencies, such as the Chios Town City Hall (mayor of Chios), the Perfecture Authority of the Island of Chios, and so on. What is going on in Greece with government corruption is not just a phase and it does not affect only the public sector. It is a deep-rooted and quite pervasive problem. It relates to the utilitarian mentality of some Greeks involved in unions and party politics. It is also due to the anarchist/ultra liberal ideology of many of the administrators and employees who make up the entire mechanism of Greek bureaucracy. However, the economic crisis in Greece is totally artificially engineered by imperialist and ultra capitalist creditors and profiteers of globalization in order to manipulate countries of important culture and civilization, such as Greece which is located at the crossroads of East and West and its ancient presence and location in the Aegean are of immense geopolitical significance due to Aegean's rich mineral and oil resources. We Greeks have one of the most ancient civilizations and we have proved in our glorious past that we are determined to survive and succeed, no matter how many internal traitors and external enemies we have. It's a shame indeed that the Greek government does almost nothing to keep our cultural heritage and our archaeological resources and protect them. On the contrary, it rather works hard to destroy them either deliberately or sometimes just by ignoring them. Even Greek athletics, the only present bright aspect of the current situation in Greece, is sabotaged by some "Greek" traitors, especially politicians, and jealous international profiteers of globalization. Nevertheless, every recession is followed by recovery. We don't know when, but it will happen. That's the law of economy and the lessons we learn from history.
Η Ελλάς προoρίζεται να ζήσει και θα ζήσει.
